There have now been more than 250 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide. That's according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University. This milestone comes as wealthy countries have fully vaccinated about 65% of their populations. Yet in low-income countries fewer than 3% of people have been vaccinated. Analysts say a major reason for the inequality: Month after month rich countries keep buying many more doses than they're using.
Andrea Taylor of Duke University's Global Health Innovation Center says one solution is for wealthy countries to transfer portions of their monthly purchasing rights to other nations. She notes that this might require the vaccine-makers to accept lower payments from those other countries. But she adds with a chuckle, "It takes only the most cursory glance at the income and earnings statements coming out from the vaccine-makers to know that they can take it. They can take the hit without any problem at all."
Analysts are also pushing for more of the doses in the existing stockpiles to be shipped overseas. One of them is Rachel Silverman of the Washington think tank Center for Global Development.
